The Europa League offers everything the Manchester United manager needs from his first season in charge.
If he hadn't swapped jobs in the summer, he would have spent Wednesday preparing for the Rangers game rather than talking about the competition. He wants to return to the top flight and end the club's five-year wait for a trophy.
It's easier to win the Europa League final in Hungary in May than it is to win the league title, and Ten Hag will end his first season well and truly secured. Man United insist that their appointment of the 52-year-old is a long-term one, but no manager since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013 has survived after missing out on the European Championship.
Initially, Ten Hag's focus will be on finishing as high up the table as possible, but he will know that the prize at the end of the Europa League is too good to pass up. He said that they have to win every game and that they want to win every tournament. Manchester United needs a mentality like that. You don't know your opponents very well in Europe.
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After losing their first two games of the season, United have won their last four to build some confidence. It's been done with a settled team, too, and there's likely to be plenty of rotation for Real Sociedad's visit to Old United on Thursday.
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After spending more than two hundred million dollars during the transfer window, Ten Hag has built a deeper squad and the early games in the Europa League give players a chance to play. "We have a squad as well as a team," said Ten Hag, who will be missing Anthony Martial as he recovers from an injury. I believe we have more than 11 starting XI players.
The team is getting better, but for players who aren't currently in the team, we know they can come in and do the job. They may be able to do it better than the players who are in. You need more than 11 players to succeed.
By the time the run-in starts, Ten Hag's priorities could well have changed, as the inference is that theEuropa League is the place to make changes for now. When he took the United job in 2016 he didn't want to play in theEuropa League, so he made eight changes to his team for the first game. By the end of the season, with United falling behind in the race for the top four, the Portuguese tactician decided to rest his players in order to keep them fresh for Europe. After finishing sixth in the league and failing to win any of their last six games, United won the Europa League trophy and returned to the top flight.
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The Europa League is a way for Ten Hag to end. After this season, he will be able to see the back of it, but it's too important to ignore.
A resurgence in form has given fans hope that this could be the start of a new era of success, but no one expects his team to mount a serious title challenge this year. The first thing Ten Hag has to do is get United back into the league. His first season will be considered a success even if they don't finish in the top half of the league.